Muse of Fire: World War I as Seen Through the Lives of the Soldier Poets By Michael Korda (Liveright Publications, 381 pages, $30) The First World War saw an outburst of poetic creativity unmatched in European history. Fueled by bitter anger at a war that destroyed the comfortable world of Victorian prosperity and complacency, the so-called “war poets” changed the nature and themes of English poetry forever.  Owens, Korda believes, outshone all the other poets despite the fact that only four of his poems had been published during his lifetime. Michael Korda, author of over 20 books and an influential publisher, now in his 90s, has authored a new book centering on the lives of six of the most quoted and highly regarded of these poets: Rupert Brooke, Siegfried Sassoon, Robert Graves, Alan Seeger, Isaac Rosenberg, and Wilfred Owen. He divides them into two categories: those like Brooke and Seeger who wrote about war with a sense of innocence and those who bitterly denounced the war and its terrible violence. Brooke, to whom Korda devotes a third of the book, wrote about war in romantic terms and in the lyrical tradition of English poetry: “Now, God be thanked Who has matched us with His Hour,” comparing going to war “as swimmers into cleanness leaping.” Brooke is clearly Korda’s personal favorite among the poets although his innocence about what war means makes his war poetry seems juvenile. He died of an infection before experiencing war and found, as he wrote, the “corner of a foreign field that was forever England.” Seeger, the only American among the group of six and the only one not an officer, lived in France and had a passionate love for the country, one of those about whom Oscar Wilde wrote: “When good Americans die, they go to Paris.” Seeger joined the French Foreign Legion to take part in the war, to have, he wrote in one of his poems, “the rare joy of dying well.” He wrote about going into battle with a naivete that matched Brooke’s. “I am happy and full of excitement over the wonderful days that are ahead.” On July 4, 1916, Seeger found his “rendezvous with death” fighting in a futile and meaningless battle. He was the last of the war poets to glorify death. The remaining four poets had no time for talk about Seeger’s “privilege of dying well.” They were all British, all officers, and all bitter at their experience of war. Robert Graves, to whom Korda devotes the least attention, perhaps because he is the best known due to his popular book of war experiences — Goodbye to All That — and the subsequent fame of his I Claudius stories. The book is filled with tales of seeing the ghosts of his dead comrades, his affection toward his men under his command, and a bizarre story of how after he was wounded his commanding officer wrote his parents that he had died. Graves enjoyed his war, writing that he wanted to be a good officer and win medals, something that comes through in his book. His war poetry hasn’t had the impact that the work of the others did, which explains why his chapter is so flat. Korda’s best chapters revolve around Sassoon, Rosenberg, and Owen. In fact, the one chapter I would single out is that dealing with Sassoon, who Korda regards as having the surest touch with words. His poetry “begs to be read aloud,” something not true of the others. It is also the bitterest with his anger directed at those civilians and military who prolonged the war. “Good morning, good morning!” The General said When we met him last week on our way to the line, Now the soldiers he smiled at are most of them dead And we’re cursing his staff for incompetent swine. “He’s a cheery old card,” grunted Harry to Jack As they slogged up to Arras with rifle and pack.  But he did for them both by his plan of attack.  And yet Sassoon loved the war and its comradery in some ways, denouncing the violence and yet returning to the Army after he had been declared mentally unfit. Like Graves he coveted decorations. Two Special Poets Korda has great respect for the last two of the war poets, Isaac Rosenberg and Wilfred Owen. Rosenberg came from an impoverished Jewish family although he was not much interested in things Jewish, according to Korda. Unlike the other poets he did not find writing easy and labored over his poems. Korda admires his determination to write. His poetry, according to Korda, has “a directness and simplicity” not found in the work of the better educated others. He has not found the audience that the others, except Seeger, have today. Owens, Korda believes, outshone all the other poets despite the fact that only four of his poems had been published during his lifetime. No one better described “the pity of war” (his words) better than Owen’s “Dulce et Decorum Est.”  My friend, you would not tell with such high zest To children ardent for some desperate glory,  That old Lie: Duce et decorum est  Pro patria mori There is something profoundly melancholy in these words, given that Owens died in a futile infantry attack less than a week before the war ended. The war poetry is still read today in college and one hopes the high school core. Korda, with his great love for their work, has written a beautiful book in remembrance of them. READ MORE from John Rossi: A Little-Known Film Is a John Wayne Gem Film Noir Made Me Conservative John P. Rossi is a professor emeritus of history at La Salle University in Philadelphia. The post The Soldier Poets Who Knew About War appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.